Seana McKenna News

Director, Carey Perloff has assembled a stellar cast for the Stratford Festival's production of Henrik Ibsen's JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN at the Tom Patterson Theatre. The Festival has commissioned the World Premiere of the English translation by Paul Walsh. The combination of an extraordinary cast, and the unique setting of the stage in the round at the Tom Patterson, allow for a powerful night at the theatre.

AS YOU LIKE IT opened on Friday at the Stratford Festival's Festival Theatre with a party…a literal party. Director, Jillian Keiley has set this production in her native Newfoundland, and as such, the play starts and finishes with the actors dancing about the stage and in the aisles whilst an on-stage band plays East-Coast inspired music. In addition to being given the East-Coast treatment, the production is also set in the 1980's-and I must say that the costumes are the bombdigitty!

After a period of brisk advance sales to Members, the Stratford Festival is opening its box office to the public this Friday, January 8.

The Stratford Festival comes to CBC-TV this September with spectacular performances of KING LEAR, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA and KING JOHN, captured live in HD and presented uninterrupted. These productions are the first in the Stratford Festival HD initiative, which will see all of Shakespeare's plays filmed over the next 10 years, making them available to audiences nationwide and around the world.

Under the stars on the patio at Vagabondo Italian Ristorante + Lounge in downtown Toronto, Theatre 20 announced its 2015/2016 season. The sold-out event, which included food, drinks, and a first glimpse into the season, also included preview performances from the upcoming season presented by Nathan Carroll, Colleen Dauncey, Lauren Toffan, Kevin Dennis, Nora McLellan, and David Keeley, with musical accompaniment provided byScott Christian and Mark Selby.

If you happen to be coming to Stratford Festival looking for a show that makes you laugh, think, and question whether the human race is doomed-all in equal measure…then look no further than director Miles Potter's disturbingly delightful production of THE PHYSICISTS. If you did not know you were looking for a show that did those things to you…well, trust me. You are. Come see this show.

HAMLET opened the 63rd season of the Stratford Festival to resounding applause at the Festival Theatre on Monday night. Directed by the Festival's Artistic Director, Antoni Cimolino, this HAMLET is exciting from start to finish. The entire ensemble shines as brightly as the light used to represent King Hamlet's ghost (Note: It is a very bright light).

Another of Shakespeare's great dramas, performed by one of the world's premier repertory theater companies - The Stratford Festival in Ontario Canada - comes to select U.S. cinemas courtesy of Fathom Events and By Experience. Presented under the banner of Stratford Festival HD, the series continues with King John today, Wednesday, April 8.

Another of Shakespeare's great dramas, performed by one of the world's premier repertory theater companies - The Stratford Festival in Ontario Canada - will come to select U.S. cinemas courtesy of Fathom Events and By Experience. Presented under the banner of Stratford Festival HD, the series continues with King John on Thursday, April 8.

William Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice: 'How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.' In 2014, the Stratford Festival shone by raising a record-breaking $66,686 for the Actors' Fund of Canada, the lifeline for Canada's entertainment industry. Company member giving to the Fund through payroll donations, proceeds from Madness Mug sales, audience collections and a benefit performance of Hay Fever, helped to provide much-needed financial aid to entertainment industry members who are facing times of crisis.

Swift advance sales have prompted the Stratford Festival to extend the runs of four productions, just as the box office has opened to the public. Performances of Carousel, The Alchemist, The Physicists and The Last Wife have been added to the schedule.

Daniel MacIvor's play 'The Best Brothers' quickly became a hit in Canada after its 2012 world premiere at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Merrimack Repertory Theatre will produce its East Coast premiere (and second production ever in the United States) this January, directed by Charles Towers.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2014-15 season with Colm Toibin's fiercely lyrical solo play, Testament. Originally staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011-and retitled for Broadway in 2013 as The Testament of Mary-Testament is an incisive, vivid, and deeply human work that recounts in riveting detail a defiant mother's story of her son, who has been taken from her by men she regards as fanatics. Directed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and starring Canadian leading actor, Seana McKenna (last seen in A.C.T.'s production of Napoli!), Testament has been hailed as 'beautiful and daring' by the New York Times and was a 2013 Tony Award nominee for Best New Play. Testament will perform at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco) through November 23, 2014. Press night for Testament will be tonight, November 5, 2014.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2014-15 season with Colm Toibin's fiercely lyrical solo play, Testament. Originally staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011-and retitled for Broadway in 2013 as The Testament of Mary-Testament is an incisive, vivid, and deeply human work that recounts in riveting detail a defiant mother's story of her son, who has been taken from her by men she regards as fanatics. Directed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and starring Canadian leading actor, Seana McKenna (last seen in A.C.T.'s production of Napoli!), Testament has been hailed as 'beautiful and daring' by the New York Times and was a 2013 Tony Award nominee for Best New Play. Testament will perform at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco) tonight, October 29-November 23, 2014. Press night for Testament will be today, November 5, 2014. Tickets ($20-$120) are available now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228.

The Stratford Festival will be creating films of three of this season's Shakespeare productions for international release and broadcast.

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) continues its 2014-15 season with Colm Toibin's fiercely lyrical solo play, Testament. Originally staged at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2011-and retitled for Broadway in 2013 as The Testament of Mary-Testament is an incisive, vivid, and deeply human work that recounts in riveting detail a defiant mother's story of her son, who has been taken from her by men she regards as fanatics. Directed by A.C.T. Artistic Director Carey Perloff and starring Canadian leading actor, Seana McKenna (last seen in A.C.T.'s production of Napoli!), Testament has been hailed as 'beautiful and daring' by the New York Times and was a 2013 Tony Award nominee for Best New Play. Testament will perform at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco) October 29-November 23, 2014. Press night for Testament will be on Wednesday, November 5, 2014. Tickets ($20-$120) are available now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228.

Due to overwhelming advance ticket sales, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) has announced that an extra week of performances will be added to the current schedule of the West Coast premiere of the Signature Theatre production of Old Hats. Originally scheduled to close on Sunday, October 5, tickets are now on-sale through Sunday, October 12. Old Hats will perform at A.C.T.'s Geary Theater (415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Tickets ($20-$120) are on-sale now and may be purchased online at act-sf.org or by calling 415.749.2228.

King John, who reigned as the monarch of England from 1199-1216, was the son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the father of Henry III. The Shakespearean script concerning his reign is one of the true history plays by the Bard and is one of only two of his plays, the other being 'Richard II,' that are written entirely in script.

Sixteen years after they swept San Francisco Bay Area audiences off their feet with the Tony Award-winning production Fool Moon, American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) welcomes back Tony Award winners Bill Irwin and David Shiner in the West Coast premiere of the Signature Theatre production of Old Hats.

Part Waiting For Godot, part Title of Show, with a splash of Twelve Angry Men, WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY asks the big dramatic questions: what is art? What is life? What is the nexus between them? And what's that woman on stage doing, anyway? Starring eleven real lawyers (and a faux Seana McKenna**), it's a hilarious slice of comedic metatheatre. WATCHING SEANA McKENNA WATCH PAINT DRY plays at the George Ignatieff Theatre as part of the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available via www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062 ext. 1, or at the door.